[Stoves] Biomass Cooking Stoves Site in Back Online

Wed Mar 14 19:58:42 CDT 2007

Dear Tom,
The owner of the kiln who produces the wood vinegar applies charcoal to his
own fields. I have not tested its utility in India, because charcoal is a
valuable and good fuel. People would not apply it to the soil. But I shall
certainly conduct trials on a small scale to see if this practice improves
the agricultural yield. Since charcoal applied to the soil does not degrade,
a single application may have a permanent benefit. In such a case we may be
able to persuade people to apply it to the soil. Wood vinegar is not
produced in India. It is rather a complicated process in which the smoke
emanating from the charring kiln is passed through a slanting chimney
provided with a water jacket through which water is circulated. The water
vapour in the smoke and a part of the tar condense and flow back down the
chimney, where a tube takes them out of the chimney and into a barrel. The
liquid, which is mostly water, is separated from the heavier tar that
accumulates at the bottom of the barrel. The liquid fraction a again
distilled to purify it.
Yours
A.D.Karve

----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Miles <tmiles at trmiles.com>
To: 'Discussion of biomass cooking stoves' <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Biomass Cooking Stoves Site in Back Online

>
> AD,
>
> Thank you for the report from Pak Chong. It sounds like you may have found
a
> good use for torrefaction. As you may know there is a group in the
> Netherlands that has been promoting torrefaction for making fuel pellets.
>
> I also enjoyed your comment about the wood vinegar. Was there any
discussion
> at Pak Chong about the use of the charcoal itself as a soil amendment for
> growing crops? Ron Larson convinced me to create a discussion list and
> website on Terra Preta http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org or the
> intentional use of charcoal in soil. Terra preta is the portuguese term
for
> black soil and derives from the practice in the amazons where charcoal was
> blended in soil. We have had discussions about terra preta here on the
list
> in the past. It is used in various forms with rice husk charcoal in Japan.
> Ron has always wanted to make a gasifying stove that would produce
charcoal
> that could be used in a planting hole. Have you tried using charcoal to
> improve crops? With the wood vinegar?
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Tom
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org
> [mailto:stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of adkarve
> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 6:30 AM
> To: Choppalli Venkata Krishna; Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Biomass Cooking Stoves Site in Back Online
>
> I am just back from a workshop organised by Asia Regional Cookstove
> Programme (ARECOP) in Pak Chong, Thailand. I take this opportunity to let
> the stovers and members of ETHOS get acquainted with the valuable work
being
> conducted by ARECOP in the South East Asian countries.Theme of this
> particular workshop was making high grade charcoal. A large variety of
kilns
> was demonstrated during the workshop by their respective users/inventors.
> The coal made in these kilns was hard. It had a metallic sound when hit
> against a hard object. It contained 95% carbon, had high electrical
> conductivity and a high calorific value. This carbon is used as a
supplement
> in animal feed. It improves the quality of meat and it reduces the smell
of
> the dung. In Japan they add this coal even to human food, to skin
ointments
> and hair tonics. The hard coal, if burned in a properly designed stove,
can
> generate temperature above 1000 degrees. The yield of charcoal from most
of
> the kilns was less than 30 percent. This means, that almost 75% of the
> energy in the wood is wasted when we convert wood into into charcoal.A
> valuable byproduct of these kilns was wood vinegar. It sells at about US$6
> per litre. Wood vinegar is used as an agricultural pesticide and also as a
> plant growth promoting agent. The name wood vinegar is misleading. It is
not
> used as a salad dressing. In fact, it contains certain carcinogenic
> chemicals. I was invited as a resource person and I demonstrated our
> oven-and-retorts process for charring agricultural waste and our extruder
> made from a meat mincer for extruding the char into briquettes. I hope
that
> I made an impact on the trainees. One Dr. Shreedhar from Indian Institute
of
> Science, Bangalore, India, also attended the workshop as a resource
person.
> He talked about torrefiying wood. After his lecture, I conducted an
> experiment with the help of the trainees to torrefy leaves with the
> oven-and-retorts  kiln that was constructed in Pak Chong as a
demonstration
> model. Leaf litter collected from underneath the local trees could be
> torrefied very easily by using my kiln and the torrefied material could
also
> be easily extruded into briquettes. The briquettes burned like wood with a
> tall flame and they also produced smoke, but this process opens up the
> possibility of converting dry leaves of sugarcane and other agricultural
> waste into fuel that can be used in a T-LUD type of stove. The residue can
> still be used as charcoal.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Choppalli Venkata Krishna <krishnacreat1 at rediffmail.com>
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 10:07 AM
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Biomass Cooking Stoves Site in Back Online
>
>
> Dear Patrick
> I am subject to correction in saying that 'If you process/burn 100 Kgs of
> wood, you get 15 Kgs of charcoal". However, the Heat value difference of
> char coal and a 10% dry wood will be 2000 Kcal.Now denudation of forest
and
> impact on tree cutting is well known to all of us. Why can't we approach
> with a stove that uses least wood and a device to it making it smoke free
> and ultimately make sure for the adoption of the stove by the women?
> Jico stove of Kenya undoubtedly is popular and smoke free - but at what
cost
> of the Forest denudation? We the stovers should ,hence, my opinion, that
> priortise the wood burning in an improved smoke free stove followed by
> gasification of wood.
> -C.V.Krishna
>
>
> On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 cornelio torrijos wrote :
> >Hi all,
> >
> >More than 9 million families in the Philippines use LPG more than
> >double
> the
> >number in 1995. Some 5.5 million households use charcoal. Another 9
> >million families mostly in rural areas also use firewood for cooking.
> >
> >Should more families be encouraged to use charcoal also? Many families
> >use both LPG and charcoal for cooking.
> >
> >Here a kilo of LPG costs about one US dollar. Sometimes when the LPG
> >tank
> is
> >empty, the family may not have the ten or eleven dollars to buy a new
> >tank (metal bottle) of LPG (propane). At what price should a kilo of
> >wood charcoal be to make it more economical than LPG?
> >
> >Metal clad cement charcoal stoves sell for three US dollars. Metal only
> >charcoal stoves also sell for the same amount.
> >
> >Cornel
> >
> >On 3/6/07, PQ972 at aol.com <PQ972 at aol.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Tom thanks for all the good work you're doing
> > >
> > > Patrick T.  Quinn
> > >
> > > <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now
> > > offers
> free
> > > email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free from AOL at
> > > http://www.aol.com.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Stoves mailing list
> > > Stoves at listserv.repp.org
> > > http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_listserv.repp.org
> > > http://www.bioenergylists.org
> > >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Stoves mailing list
> >Stoves at listserv.repp.org
> >http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_listserv.repp.org
> >http://www.bioenergylists.org
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
> Stoves at listserv.repp.org
> http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_listserv.repp.org
> http://www.bioenergylists.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
> Stoves at listserv.repp.org
> http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_listserv.repp.org
> http://www.bioenergylists.org
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
> Stoves at listserv.repp.org
> http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_listserv.repp.org
> http://www.bioenergylists.org